Quote Originally Posted by mkemse
I also firmly believe the only reason now Al Quaidi is there is because we are, they were not there prior to our invasion, all our efforts should be placed in Afghanistan after 9/11 not Iraq
(no need to edit this out!)

True, and outside of Iraq, the recruitment to al-Qaeda and other terrorist networks is helped along by the US military presence. There has been a stepping up over time of the network of US bases and military in the region, sometimes of economic control too, but that's rarely mentioned, it doesn't make news. In August 1990, just after Iraq invaded Kuwait, Dick Cheney and a delegation of American cabinet people and advisers, including Dick Clarke, then Asst. Secr. of State for Politico-Military Affairs) went to see the Saudi King Fahd and his cabinet to offer US protection (and to get the right to operate from Saudi Arabia). One of the main points against it, from a Saudi perspective, was voiced by one Prince/cabinet member: "They will never leave". Cheney granted that the troops would not remain after the war, and pledged this on behalf of Predident Bush.

The King gave his yes, because the threat from Iraq was building steadily - it's a huge difference what kind of threat Iraq was in 1990 and after the mid-1990s I think - but he reminded Cheney "I have the word of the President that they will be moved out as soon as this is over" (Richard Clarke, Against All Enemies, p.57-58). Almost twenty years later, there are still thousands of U.S. troops and permanent bases in Saudi Arabia, and to anyone with the right kind of militant islamist mindset, that's proof positive that America has taken the Holy Land of Muslims hostage. Sure enough this has helped recruit people to al-Qaeda type outfits.